No. 17 Rochester Eliminates Men’s Basketball From NCAA Division III Championship With 81-70 Win

Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. – Elms College senior guard Cecil Avant (Southwest Ranches, Fla.) scored a team-high 17 points, but No. 17 University of Rochester used a game-high 25-point effort from John DiBartolomeo (Westport, Conn.) to post an 81-70 win and advance to Saturday's second round game of the 2011 NCAA Division III Championship at Ben Light Gymnasium on the campus of Ithaca College.

With the win, Rochester (21-5), will face the winner of Ithaca College (20-6) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (19-8) on Saturday, March 5 at 7:00 p.m. Elms concludes its season 20-8 overall.

Trailing 73-60, Elms' senior forward Edgar Martinez (Springfield, Mass.) tipped in a missed shot and converted a layup to pull the Blazers to within seven at 73-64 with 3:08 remaining in the contest.

A pair of free throws by DiBartolomeo at the 2:20 mark gave Rochester a 75-64 lead before freshman guard Kurt Steiner (Rutland, Mass.) delivered a layup to narrow the gap to 75-66. Rochester answered when Nate Vernon (Chapel Hill, N.C.) sank a trey to put the Yellowjackets on top 78-66 with 1:45 to play and held on for an 81-70 victory.

DiBartolomeo led five Rochester players in double figures as Chris Dende (Clarks Summit, Pa.) netted 15 points while Nate Novosel (Lexington, Ky.) and Mike Labonowski (Rochester, N.Y.) added 12 and 11 points respectively. DiBartolomeo also hauled in a game-high 10 rebounds as the Yellowjackets out-rebounded Elms 48-29 in the game.

Elms sprinted to an early 8-2 lead over the first 3:30 of the game before Rochester used an 11-4 run that included a three-pointer from Dende and a mid-range jumper by Novosel to give the Yellowjackets a 13-12 lead. Rochester extended its lead to 20-14 when Dende hit his second strike from beyond the arc at the 10:30 mark of the first half.

The Yellowjackets increased its edge to 10 points at 24-14 lead before Blazers' senior forward Juan Alverio (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico) buried a trey at the 8:40 mark. Rochester's Dan Shapiro (Ridgewood, N.J.) then answered with a three-pointer of his own to set the score at 27-17.

A layup by Elms' junior guard Bryant Corcoran (Wolcott, Conn.) at the 4:55 mark pulled the Blazers to within nine at 31-23, but DiBartolomeo drained a deep three-pointer to keep Yellowjackets' cushion in double digits at 34-23 with 3:50 to play in the contest.

DiBartolomeo added a pair of free throws and Labanowski swished a three-pointer to give Rochester its largest lead of the frame (18 points) before Corcoran hit a trey to break up the run and cut the lead to 15 at 41-26.

Elms scored eight of the next 12 points, sparked by two three-pointers and a pair of foul shots by Cecil Avant to cut the Blazers deficit to 45-34 at intermission.

Rochester out-rebounded the Blazers 26-5 in the opening 20 minutes and shot 53.6-percent from the field to help the Yellowjackets stake an 11-point lead at halftime. Elms shot an efficient 40.7-percent from the floor in the first half.

Martinez finished with 16 points and six boards in the losing effort, while Alverio added 10 points and five steals.

Corcoran, senior guard Arsenio Avant (Southwest Ranches, Fla.) and sophomore forward David McDaniel (Plainfield, N.J.) each added five points off the bench for Elms in the losing effort.